KITE, a common aerial toy in the form of two crossed sticks covered with paper and bal-' armed with a tail or string, on which are tied, bits of cloth or paper. Kites were first em ployed in aid of science in 1749 by Dr. Alex ander Wilson and Thomas Mellville of Scot-) land, who by means of a thennometer attached to a kite were able to take temperatures above the earth's surface. Franklin's with electricity by means of a kite and key are familiar to everyone. Among the men who have given' much thought and labor to improvet kite making are W. A. Eddy, S. P. Langley, Octave Chanute, Lawrence Hargrave, J. B. Millet, J. W. Davis, C. P. Lamson, H. D. Wise,' Captain Baden-Powell Professor Marvin, C. F. Moore and others. The first improvement w.is to make a tailless kite, and this was perfected by Mr. Eddy.
In 1895 Captain Baden-Powell of Engiand, weighing 150 pounds, was enabled to hoist him self 100 feet in the air by a tandem of five kites. Mr. Hargrave, with three kites; raised a' total weight of 208 pounds to the height of 16', feet, as far as he cared 'to go. Lieutenant Wise, in 1897, with four kites, rose to 42 feet,' the entire weight raised being 229 pounds. Mr. Eddy has done much to develop tandem kite' flying. In 1897 he made a tandem of Eddy-Malay kites on a cord two miles long, with an elevation of 5,595 feet, the same being kept up for 15 hours. At Blue Hill Observa tory, near Boston, • this height was extree4ed, by 'the tandem of seven Malay and two Hargrave kites, with an area of 170 feet, rising 8,740 feet above Blue Hill, or 9,375 feet above sea-level. Lt took three miles of piano-wire and the work of three men for 12 hours to accomplish this feat. Piano wire has been found preferable to cord, having greater tensile strength and pre senting less surface to the wind.
In the' United States Weather Bureau pars kites are used for the purpose of recording the velocity of the wind and the humidity and tem perature at high altitudes, by the meteorograph. These can be obtained at a single observation and several hours before the effects are known in the lower atmosphere. Photographs have been taken by means of a camera fastened on the frame of a kite and operated by a cord, and Mr. Eddy had an arrangement of eight cameras strapped together in which all the shutters can be opened at once, and by this means a com plete view of the horizon can be taken. In
ventors of flying and machines have made extensive use of kites in planning the construction of their various contrivances. Since 1905 meteorological observations by kites have been carried on continuously by the Weather Bureau at Mount Weather, Va. The instruments were raised to 23,835 feet on 5 May 1910 when 10 kites and 81A miles of wire were used.
The first permanent station for kite flying in Europe, and the first in the world lished under governmental auspices, is that at Viborg, in the extreme northern part of Den mark, the governments of Denmark, Sweden and France co-operating in the scheme. The most important building at the station is a tower 33 feet high, mounted on circular rails,, so that it can be rotated easily and left open on one side. No matter from which direction the winds blows the tower is turned with this gap to leeward. Thus the operator can sit within, where the windlasses are, and watch his kites. The latter, of course, naturally take their lines down the :wind. There are twowindlasses, controlled by electric motors, one being held in reserve for immediate use in case the wire on the other breaks while in service. Kites have also been used to throw lines across streams or chasms or to bring life-lines to stranded ships. Consult 'Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerial Naviga-r tion) (Chicago 1893) ; Marvin, C. F., 'Me chanics of the Kite); 'Instructions for Aerial ; 'Investigation of the Sluggish.' ness of the Meteorograph) and other bulletins of the Weather Bureau (Washington 1898 et seq.) ; L. Teisserenc de Bort, 'Etudes sur la temperature et ses variations,) in the of the Central Meteorological Bureau' (Paris 1897) ; 'Sur l'organization des sondages airiennes,) in the 'Memoirs of the Interna tional Congress for (ib. 1900); Rotch, A. 'Use of Kites to Obtain Meteoro logical (Boston 1900); Assmann. and Berson, der Arbeiten am aeronautischen Observatorium in den Jahren 1900 and 1901' (Berlin 1902) ; (Arbeiten des Konigliche preussisehen aeronautischen Obser vatoriums) (Lindenberg 1904-13), and paper by Millet, J. B., in the Aeronautical Awn& for 1896.